Air National Guard: Montana My Home Base

Hey everybody, my name is Staff Sergeant Maddie Waitson here in Big Sky Country, home of the 120th Airlift Wing, and this is my home base. Let's check it out. The center of our mission here at the 120th is our fleet of C-130s, which helps transport people and goods all across the world. And with me today is Major Caldwell, who is going to tell me a little bit more about that mission. Hello sir. Hi Sergeant Waitson. Exactly as you said, one of our key missions is to transport goods and people all around the world. Some other critical missions that we have are air medical evacuation, natural disaster support, and contingency response, which are all important to our home state of Montana. Yes, absolutely. And from my understanding is that you always weren't a pilot. Can you tell me a little bit more about your enlisted career first? Yes, when I initially got in, I was going to college in Bozeman, Montana, and I started out enlisted in the 120th Operations Group in the intelligence shop. And I used those benefits to help me get commissioned, then eventually pursuing my dreams as a pilot. And I love serving my home state of Montana. Of course, well that's great to hear, and thank you again sir for telling us a little bit more about the mission that we have here. We have a lot to see today, so we're going to move on to our next location. Let's go. As we mentioned, a huge part of the airlift mission is transporting items, and our airmen have it down to a science. We're here with Senior Airman Jesse Spence, who's going to explain a little bit more about what it is that air transportation does. Hi Airman Spence. Hi Sergeant Wadeson. You just caught me double checking some straps on one of the loads that we drop out of the back of our planes. Well that's pretty cool. Can you explain to me a little bit more about why it's so important to have the plane packed a certain way? I'm sure it's not like packing for a road trip. No, not at all. We make sure cargo and passengers are transported safely across the world. We're actually getting ready to load an aircraft now. Would you like to come with us? Yeah, absolutely. I'm finished loading the plane, and we're going to head off to the next location. Let's go. We just saw air transportation prep and load cargo to put onto the flight, but now we're actually going to see loadmasters and what they do to keep the cargo safe in flight. Hi Airman Ullman, how are you? Hi Sergeant Wadeson, how are you? Good, good. Can you tell me a little bit more about your job as a loadmaster here? So as a loadmaster, I'm in charge of getting the cargo you just saw over there in air transportation from point A to point B, whether that's flying it somewhere or air dropping it. And I get it loaded on the plane, and I do weight and balance for the aircraft. So I decide where it goes in the airplane and if we can or can't take it based off of safety reasons. That's a lot of our job is cargo security and just security of the cargo compartment. Just kind of touching everything. Making sure that everything's in place? Yep, making sure it's in place and it's not going anywhere. All right, Airman Ullman, thank you so much for showing me about your job as a loadmaster. And now that we've seen a lot of stuff about the C-130s, we're actually going to move on to our next location. Let's go. In addition to the C-130 mission with the Montana Air National Guard, we also have the 219th Red Horse Squadron. And to tell me a little bit more about it, I have Technical Sergeant Danielle Rushton here with me today to talk about the unique mission of the Red Horse. Hi, Danielle. Hi, how are you doing? Good, how are you? Good. So I am the NCYC of supply here at the 219th, so I handle more of the logistics side of Red Horse. But I'm going to take you over to Sergeant McQueen, and he handles some of the operations side. Sweet, let's do it. Hi, Sergeant McQueen. This is Sergeant Wadeson. Hey, Sergeant Wadeson. She's here to learn a little bit more about Red Horse. Do you mind explaining it to her? Absolutely. So we're the Air Force's construction team, so whenever the military needs help responding to natural disasters or needs infrastructure buildup anywhere, we respond to it so that we make sure that airmen have a roof over their head and a runway to land on. So I'll take you around and show you some of the stuff. Sounds like the Red Horse has a lot of different careers, is that correct? Yeah, we have just about any career you can think of. Heavy equipment operators, HVAC, electrical, power production, vehicle maintenance, and many more. We're also trained in combat skills so that in the event that when we do go downrange, we're able to defend ourselves. So why don't you tell me a little bit more about why you joined the Air Guard and the Red Horse specifically? I wanted to continue serving after I got out of active duty, and the Red Horse has a very cool and unique mission. I just don't think that I'd be able to find the same fulfillment and pride that I do here at the Red Horse being a part of the Montana Air National Guard. Now that we've learned about the mission of the Montana Air National Guard, we're going to go see what else Great Falls has to offer. Let's check it out. The Montana Air National Guard is one of two military installations in Great Falls, and we're actually still a relatively small community of about 65,000 people. So you really never know who you're going to run into. Speaking of, I'm here with Mayor Corey Reeves. Hello sir, how are you? Hi Maddie, great to see you. Great to see you too. As someone who knows Great Falls as well as you do, how would you explain it to a person who's never been here before? Yeah, great question. So Great Falls is truly an amazing community. We've got a little bit of everything going on here. We have the rodeo, we have art scenes, we have amazing businesses that support our community, we have recreational opportunities galore here. So and with all that, what's cool is we still have that small Montana town charm. Absolutely, and with that charm too, I've noticed that there is some great military support in this community as well. Absolutely, we are surrounded by military installations, and it is truly an honor and a privilege to live, work, and play with those who serve our country like yourself. Absolutely, and I love supporting my local community as well as a member of the Montana Air National Guard. I really appreciate you taking some time out of your busy schedule today sir. I'm going to let you get back to work and have a good day. Take care Maddie. Thank you. Now we're going to move on to our next spot that I want to show you guys, so let's go. Great Falls is home to the River's Edge Trail, which is an awesome trail system that runs along the Missouri River. It's perfect for people like me who train for triathlons. Try to keep up. All right, time to get out the bike. Without escaping the crowds just a little bit, if you drive about 45 minutes in any direction from Great Falls, you actually hit some pretty cool hiking trails in the mountains. And with me today is my friend Andrew, and he's going to be taking me on one of those hikes. Hey Andrew, how's it going? Pretty good Maddie, how are you? Good, good. Why don't you tell me a little bit about this hike we're going to go on today? Yeah, this is just another thing I love about living in Montana. I've lived all over the world, and this is some of the best hiking I've ever experienced. The hike I'm taking you on today is one of my favorites. Let's get after it. All right. So what's actually really cool about Great Falls is that you're only a few hour drive from Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park. I'm originally from Minnesota, so wanted to be a little bit closer to the mountains. I can tell you it's been incredibly worth it. We have seen so many amazing things today on base and in Great Falls, but what really makes this special is that we're more than just a military installation. We're actually one big family, and it's something that has made me incredibly grateful for being a part of the Montana Air National Guard. But now I'm going to go enjoy a campfire out in Big Sky Country.